My Mentorship Experience

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While graduate school is an extremely stressful process, our program has several programs in place that help alleviate some of that stress. In my opinion, one of the most beneficial programs is the mentorship experience that occurs during the Supervision and Consultation class, as it allows third year students to share their knowledge (i.e., mistakes and successes) with second or first years to hopefully make their lives a little easier. Therefore, the following will highlight my mentee experience as a second year student, and then my mentor experience as a third year student. About a year ago when I arranged to meet with my mentor to discuss the internship process, I remember thinking it was way to early to start thinking about internship. …show more content…

One of the things I remember appreciating most about our meeting was her honesty about how challenging the next several months were going to be. While sharing that information with a student who is about to enter that difficult period can be nerve-racking, she followed that up with genuinely describing how I would be able to complete the work, pass my classes, pass my comprehensive exam, get internship interviews, and then an internship. Therefore, the biggest lessons I took away from our discussion was awareness about how challenging the process is, but also the confidence that, just like everything else, I would successfully complete the materials. As I participated in and then completed the internship process, those two lessons proved to be exactly true. From the time I began preparing for the CAMP 2-8 until interviews were over was one of the most challenging periods in my entire life. However, while I may have been stressed, sleep-deprived, and caffeine overloaded, I was able to successfully maneuver through all of the challenges and obtain an APA accredited internship. As such, I realized that those two lessons were extremely important …show more content…

For example, he had issues related to his direct therapy hours, and was worried that it would negatively affect his internship opportunities. In addition, he was unsure if he was going to take the fifth year or not, depending on his direct hours, and what his future employer (i.e., the Air force) wanted him to do. I remember feeling surprised as he voiced his concerns, because I did not experience those issues when I was in his position. Rather, I remember feeling extremely relaxed about everything during spring quarter of second year. Recognizing that he was feeling some pressure and/or stress about his current situation, we spent the majority of our first meeting on this topic. I attempted to listen to his concerns, provided feedback about how he could potentially address everything, gave him examples about what other individuals in similar situations did, and then we brainstormed about his options moving

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